Guangdong Deploys Over 2,000 Humanoid Robots in Factories, Aiming for 3,000 by Year-End

AI products, especially robots, are increasingly entering Chinese factories. In Guangdong, a major manufacturing province, AI's empowerment of manufacturing has reached scale and demonstration effect.

Guangdong already has over 2,000 humanoid robots deployed in manufacturing enterprises, and the number entering factories is expected to exceed 3,000 for the full year of 2026.

On September 22, at the second Guangdong AI Application Matchmaking Conference, Cross-Dimensional Intelligence signed an agreement with Bestar, a subsidiary of Sunwoda, to bring robots into new energy factories and explore the path for embodied intelligence to enter manufacturing systems.

At the conference, Guangdong also launched the Thousand Robots Enter Factories—Guangdong Embodied Intelligent Robot Large-Scale Application Demonstration Project and released a list of AI needs in manufacturing.

Robots entering factories is not a one-time delivery, said Yang Huaiyu, general manager of Cross-Dimensional Intelligence's humanoid robot business. Their robots are already working in factories. In some companies' SMT workshops, Cross-Dimensional's robots have taken up front-of-warehouse loading positions, performing operations such as unpacking, scanning, and boxing, and have been integrated with the factories' WMS and MES systems.

In the cooperation project signed with Bestar, Cross-Dimensional Intelligence aims to build a complete closed loop around real production scenarios: extract tasks from real factories, reconstruct task environments through simulation, train models using simulation and real data, deploy the models to robots, and continuously feed operational data from real production back to improve the models.

Yang Huaiyu noted that traditional automated production excels at single-path, precise, and efficient processes. However, flexible manufacturing demands are growing, and factory orders are often small-batch and multi-variety. Once materials, SKUs, or workstations change, it often means reprogramming, re-debugging, or even hardware modifications.

Embodied intelligence aims to change this logic. After robots enter real production, every grasp, recognition, scan, transfer, exception recovery, and even every failure can be accumulated as new data. Cross-Dimensional Intelligence has accumulated over 1,500 embodied intelligence models across more than 50 sub-sectors, with solutions applied to production lines of leading enterprises such as Midea, CRRC, Hisense, and Lens Technology.

On the demand side, Guangdong province took the lead. The conference released a Guangdong AI+ application demand opportunity list, covering 388 needs across seven major fields, with emerging industries accounting for about a quarter. These are precise scenario needs rather than general directions.

Opening massive real industry scenarios, covering various types such as solution procurement, joint technology research, and scenario co-construction, can shift the industry logic from "enterprises seeking scenarios with technology" to "seeking technology with scenarios."

At the subsequent AI+ Manufacturing matchmaking meeting, Guangdong also signed eight large-scale embodied intelligent robot application projects, covering diverse scenarios including industrial manufacturing, warehouse logistics, libraries, subways, community parks, sports, and smart housing. Once all projects are implemented, they are expected to bring over 600 embodied intelligent robots into frontline scenarios, with a total signed investment of 75 million yuan.